SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A Senate hearing about reforming the U.S. Postal Service that could have scrutinized what Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and others pay for package delivery has been delayed, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, moving back President Donald Trump’s effort to hike the world’s largest online retailer’s rates.

Trump has repeatedly attacked Amazon on Twitter for treating the Postal Service as its “delivery boy” by paying less than it should for deliveries and contributing to the service’s $65 billion loss since the global financial crisis of 2007-2009, without presenting evidence.

The president ordered a task force in April to study the Postal Service, an independent establishment of the executive branch of the U.S. government, looking at its financial health and what it charges customers such as Amazon for package deliveries, in a report due Aug. 10.

However, the White House has decided it will not yet release the report, forcing the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to postpone a hearing on postal reform that was planned for Sept. 5, the sources said. One said the hearing was postponed “indefinitely.”

That means any legislation that raised the Postal Service’s rates on Amazon and other shippers has been kicked further into the future.

08/31/18 05:14 PM EDT
Trump moves toward public report on Postal Service overhaul by year's end

The Trump administration is promising to publicly release a report on reforming the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) by the end of the year, a development that is likely to carry implications for President Trump’s feud with Amazon.

Trump convened a task force in April to overhaul the Postal Service, after accusing Amazon accusing of using USPS as its “delivery boy.” Trump directed the task force, chaired by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, to study the Postal Service and develop administrative and legislative recommendations for reforming it, to be laid out in a report to the president.

Business groups, which are fearful the report could include a recommendation to hike shipping rates, are hungry for a public version.

A Treasury Department spokesperson told The Hill this week that the president had been briefed on the task force’s preliminary findings earlier this month. A final, public report will be released publicly “before the end of the year,” the spokesperson said.

“The Task Force will continue our work to identify solutions to strengthen the USPS business model driving toward a public report before the end of the year,” the Treasury spokesperson said. “It is clear that the governance of USPS must be fixed and we encourage Congress to take actions towards that goal.”

The task force, which is comprised of Mnuchin as well as the heads of the Office of Personnel Management and Office of Management and Budget, was established in April via an executive order from Trump. <SNIP>